Bidirectional Relevancy Analysis Of Extreme Negative Words Used In Interrogative Sentences

Polarity refers to the tendency of modal proposition to positive or negative contexts. Polarity Items(Pls) are generally divided into Positive Polarity Items (PPIs) and Negative Polarity Items(NPIs). PPIs distribute in the affirmative sentences typically, while NPIs distribute in the negative sentences typically. Words with extreme quantity have the tendency to be PIs. In this paper, we call the Negative Polarity Items with extreme quantity "Extreme Negative Polarity Items(Ex-NPIs)".Ex-NPIs can be licensed in negative sentences and questions. For example, the Chinese NPI "yi ge zi er (一个儿子)" which means the minimal amount of money can be licensed in negative sentence "He didn’t ask for yi ge zi er(一个儿子)’from family." and question "who takes ’yi ge zi er(一个儿子)’ from him?"While Ex-NPIs are used in questions, the questions which include them become rhetorical questions, and they implicate the negative meaning, as the later sentence above implicates the negative meaning "nobody takes yi ge zi一个子儿)’from him" This paper concentrates on the Ex-NPIs’use in questions, absorbs the idea of the Relevance Theory, Bi-directional Optimality Theory, Scalar Logic and Information Theory. This paper gives analyses for the phenomenon from some different levels:syntax, semantics, pragmatics and cognition. This paper intergrates Relevance Theory and Bi-directional Theory, and constructs a new Bi-Directional Relvenvance Model, in order to solve the seven main problems about the licensing relation between the Ex-NPIs and the Rhetorical Questions which license them.(1) What’s the speakers’pragmatical purpose in using the Ex-NPIs in Questions(2) What’s the reason that the speakers don’t choose words with other quantity in the quantify-induced domain?(3) How do the speakers choose the words’extreme quantitial value?(4) Which kinds of contexts are approiate for the questions including the Ex-NPIs? (5) How can the questions’negative implicature be inferenced?(6)When the speakers use Rhetorical Questions including Ex-NPIs, how do the participaters interact in language communication?(7)Ex-NPIs can be licensed not only in questions, but also in some different contexts, such as negative sentences, sentences which implicate negative meanings, conditional sentences, comparative sentences and so on. How can we find a universal account for the licensing relation between Ex-NPIs and different contexts which can license them.This paper mainly gives a Bi-directional Relevance Theory account that can answer the question why the speakers use the Ex-NPIs in questions, and why the hearers understand the speakers’intention is implicating the negative meaning instead of seeking information. This paper offers the view that the speakers’use of Ex-NPIs in Rhetorical Questions. is related to his intention of get the evidences with the most persuasion. The hearers start the monotone functional relation between quantitial value and probablitiy and best relevant contextual assumptions to understand the questions’implicature as negative.This paper has three theoretical meanings:(1)the study of Ex-NPIs isn’t sufficient in the study of PIs, so this paper helps to give systematic analyses for Pis’distribution in different syntactic contexts.(2)As the study of Modern Chinese’s Rhetorical Questions rarely takes PIs into account, this paper is a beneficial supplement for the study of Modern Chinese’s Rhetorical Questions.(3)This paper combines some theories which include western theories in study of PIs such as Scalar Logic, Information Entropy, Relevance Theory and Game Theory, and then constructs a new Bi-directional Relevance Model which has some theoretical innovation points.This paper include five parts,(1Introduction.(2)Literature Review.(3)Bi-directional Relevance Model.(4)The Bi-directional Relevance Analysis of the Extreme Negative Polarity Items’Licensing in Rheotorical Questions.(5)Conclusion.